SARASOTA -- An elderly man charged with murdering his ailing wife told detectives that he was trying to end her suffering and had intended to die with her, police said.

Paul Louis Armbruster, 88, of Venice, was arrested Thursday and charged with the first-degree murder of Virginia Armbruster, 82, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

He was being held without bail Saturday in the Sarasota County jail.

Paul Armbruster told detectives his wife had been discharged into his care by a nursing home the day before her death, according to police reports.

He described belting his wife in the passenger seat of their car while the engine was running in the garage, according to the report. Then he ran a piece of garden hose from the exhaust to a rear window and waited inside for two hours for her to die, police said.

Paul Armbruster told police he took sleeping pills and joined his wife, but the car overheated and stalled, the report said. He took more sleeping pills and tried again, but eventually gave up, police said.

Virginia Armbruster fell and suffered broken bones in March, neighbor Irma Thompson said. She said ambulances were frequently called to the house.